FAQ

What are the aims of The Productive Leader?The Productive Leader aims to reduce waste and variation in personal work processes to free up time for leadership teams to focus on more value adding activities such as strategic planning, thinking and mentoring. It is a comprehensive, facilitated programme involving entire leadership teams, delivered in-house by a facilitator nominated within the organisation itself.

Who is The Productive Leader aimed at and what is the process the executive team follows to go through the programme?
The Productive Leader is aimed initially at the executive level within the organisation – executive directors and personal assistants. As a whole leadership team, the group attends a series of five facilitated session over a period of six to 12 weeks. These sessions are organised internally by their nominated facilitator who uses The Productive Leader modules and online tools to deliver each session.

What is the structure of the programme?The programme is made up of five facilitated modules which involve the entire leadership team. At the end of each session, the team makes a series of commitments towards improvements that can be made and cascaded throughout the organisation. The Productive Leader is supported by a series of self-development modules which participants can undertake in their own time or during team meetings. Typically it takes a leadership team six to 12 weeks to complete the programme.

What is the Executive Leader Guide?The Executive Leader Guide introduces leaders to the benefits, opportunities and content of the programme. It also outlines the resources the organisation needs to make available and the importance of having an executive sponsor. This guide is brief and a 'must read' for any senior leader wishing to encourage their team to participate in The Productive Leader.

Why do you need an NHS England email address to access content on your site?Because the NHS Institute products and programmes are only freely available to the NHS in England, this is our way of verifying that users are from that audience. If you are having problems logging on to our website, please get in touch using the contact us page.

How do NHS England executive teams place an order for a Productive Leader box set?Rather than ordering individual box sets, you need to place an order for your entire leadership team (directors and their PAs). You will need to have approval by your chief executive before you can request them on the register now page. This is because the programme is initially aimed at executive teams so only a limited number of box sets can be sent to each NHS organisation. Once an order has been placed, subsequent orders cannot be made online, so you will need to contact us. Upon registering both the person placing the box set order and the chief executive will receive a confirmation email.

I work for the NHS in England but I am not part of the executive team. Can I order a box set of the modules?Unfortunately, box sets of modules are only available for executive teams, but you can still participate in the programme by downloading the modules and getting access to the online resources by emailing us at productiveleader@institute.nhs.uk

How many modules are NHS England organisations entitled to for free?NHS England organisations can receive up to 20 box sets free of charge. Additional copies may be available upon request.

What is the charge for additional modules?Boxsets are priced at £40 and the Project Manager and Facilitator Guides are priced at £15.

I work for the NHS in another UK country. Can I order a box set of modules?Unfortunately we are unable to provide copies of the box sets to organisations outside of the NHS in England. We can however make the programme available to the rest of the NHS through a licensing agreement. Please get in touch using the contact us page.

I work outside of the UK. How can I get involved with The Productive Leader?
Please get in touch using the contact us page and someone from the NHS Institute will respond to you.

What skills make a good Productive Leader project manager and facilitator? For further details and guidance on both roles, please see Register Your Facilitator/PM.

Does my organisation need to identify both a project manager and a facilitator? What is the difference between these roles?It is possible to combine the roles so that one person undertakes both. However, during the development of The Productive Leader we have found that by having two different people fulfill the roles means they can support each other and be more effective at delivering the programme. For details of both roles, please see Register Your Facilitator/PM.

How does Macro Media Flash work?Macromedia Flash is a method of delivering interactive multimedia content over the Internet. Flash is popular on the Web because it enables the creation of visually dynamic and interactive online user experiences while keeping files very small for fast downloads, to find out further information please visit http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/about/If you are having difficulty downloading the modules, please get in touch using the contact us page.